In Buffalo, the visiting Ottawa Senators hung a five spot on the Sabres in the opening Stanza on Wednesday night in a 6-2 thrashing.
Shane Pinto had a goal and four points in the win.
“If you want to win, you need balance,” Pinto said. “And we had that tonight and it’s going to be big for the back-to-back tomorrow (against the Chicago Blackhawks) to have that same thing. So, going to need all the guys on board.”
Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves in the win.
The Senators moved to 31-36-4 off their third straight win.
The first period was all Senators, as they hit for five goals wrest complete control of the game from the home side.
Artem Zub opened the gates at 2:37, scoring off an errant puck at the crease for a 109 lead
Boris Katchouk stretched the lead to 2-0 at 4:56, scoring off a deflection.
Ottawa;s Drake Batherson picked up another loose puck at 6:01 for a 3-0 advantage.
Less than three minutes later, the Sens piled on with a marker from Jakob Chychrun at 8:49 for a 4-0 lead, scoring off a slap shot from the right circle.
Brady Tkachuk ballooned the lead to 5-0 with 49 seconds left on the clock in the first. He scored after collected a nifty pass from Thomas Chabot.
“It’s keeping the consistency with good effort, right habits,” Katchouk said. “The small things matter so much in this game. And obviously, it worked out tonight with the tip. But kudos to my linemates. ‘Kels’ and ‘Kassy,’ they worked hard to get the puck as well. Those two battle hard every night as well. We feed off each other, and it’s good to play with them.”
The Sabres dropped to 34-34-5 off their fourth loss in six matches.
“That was probably the worst part,” the Sabres’ Rasmus Dahlin said. “We let [Luukkonen] down. He’s been saving us for a long time now. That’s not OK from our side.”
JJ Peterka and Connor Clifton were the Sabres’ strikers, they both scored in the middle frame to trim cut into the Senators lead at 5-2 after two periods of play.
“I was pretty shocked,” Clifton said. “I thought, our season’s on the line, we’ve got a team we played three other times already, right, to finish the season series. They came in and they gave it to us, and we had no answer. Obviously, you give up five, that was that.”
Peterka closed the gap to 5-1 at 2:54 of the middle frame, scoring off a rebound.
Clifton scored at 13:07 to make it 5-2, scoring off a wrist shot from the slot after a solo effort to get the puck into the zone.
“We wanted, I guess, to play as individuals,” Clifton said. “I’m disappointed we let ‘Upie’ down, he’s the heart and soul of this team. He’s kept us in so many games, and just to not show up and play that careless style, give them freebies all over the place. … Yeah, obviously, the first 20 really dictated the rest of the game.”
Pinto padded the lead when he hit an empty net at 16:43 of the third for 6-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“You’re frustrated,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “You’re disappointed. Just the simple, simple things that would be routine execution were not. Obviously, that’s frustrating.”
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen got the start for the Sabres, surrendering four goals on just nine shots before getting the hook in the first period.
Devon Levi made 31 saves in a mop up role.
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